Chapter 26

Plantevelu and the meaning of Plant May 2003. One of a series of Chapters by Dr. John S. Plant, Keele University, England, ST5 5BG.

T HE DESCENT OF AN EARLY P LANT- LIKE NAME 1 AND THE S EMANTICS2

OF SIMILAR NAMES

T

he earliest known evidence for a Plant-like name can be taken to be that of the 9th century founder of a new Duchy of Aquitaine (SW France), Bernard Plantevelu. There is some controversy about his descent with, for example, two different schemes tracing it back to the Merovingian king Dagobert II. One of these schemes relates to the name Plantard, which can mean an ‘ardent scion’ or, in Breton, an ‘implant of art or skill’. Such suppositions of early origins for Plantard have met with scepticism. Leaving Plantard aside there may have been, nonetheless, developing ideas about virtue and generation which seem likely to have influenced the onomastics of Plantevelu continuing on through Plantagenet to the east Cheshire Plants. Salient sense for Plante-, as a compositional constituent of Plantevelu and Plantagenet, can be found in Latin, Old French, and Middle English yielding a meaning ‘a descended and implanted vertue’. It seems unnecessary to suppose a metonymic extension of the meaning of the Plant surname to a ‘gardener’ since, when allowance is made for medieval autohyponymy, a more tightly-linked concept can be seen to be ‘a descended soul, descendant, or child’ in keeping with the Latin etymology of plant meaning ‘children’ in Welsh.

26.1 The medieval descent of Bernard Plantevelu he medieval descent of Bernard Plantevelu (ca 830 - 17.8.886) is subject to various schemes. The difficulties begin with identifying his parents, given the abundance of important bearers of the name Bernard between 860 and 880. There are for example two schemes for Plantevelu’s descent from the Merovingian king Dagobert II, involving William of Gellone as an intermediary. Though each of the schemes has its problems, a brief description of some of the key individuals they involve at least serves to illustrate some background to the nobility by Plantevelu’s times.

26.1.1 Merovingian times n 511 Clovis died and the empire he had created was divided, according to Merovingian cusI tom, between his four sons. The authority once centralised in Clovis became progressively more AD

diffuse as the Merovingian dynasty presided, for more than a century thereafter, over a number of disparate and often waring kingdoms. The court chancellors, or ‘Mayors of the Palace’, accumulated more and more power – a factor that eventually contributed to the fall of the dynasty. The 1 I am grateful to Andreas Ardus of Estonia for drawing my attention to various information concerning William of Gellone and Bernard Plantevelu and for his translations of accounts from German and from French. 2 I am grateful to Professor M Short of Lancaster University for recommending an introductory textbook on semantics; also, to Mme. Nanette Pafumi of Switzerland (Plant Family History Group Member No. 189), such as for drawing my attention to Shakespeare’s sonnets 15 and 16 which add a pleasing style to the ‘plant metaphor’.

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CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

12

(a) Hlawitschka’s scheme for the descent of William of Gellone and Charlemagne Drogo Duke of Champagne d 708 m Anstrud Widow of mojordomo Berthar Grimoald d 714 mojordomo in Neustria and Bergundy m(1) Theudsinda dau. of the Frisian prince Ratbod m(2) concubine NN Regentrud

Arnulf Duke Hugo Archbishop of Rouen d 730 Gottfried Pippin

Theudoald majordomo 714/5

Charlemagne Irmina Abbess of Oeren d before 710 m Hugobert Count Palatine d 697/8

Plektrud first wife of Pippin the Middle d 16.12.714

Bertrada the Elder

Heribert Count of Laon

Bertrada the Younger d 12.6.783 m Pippin III b 714 d 24.9.768

Carolingian dynasty

King Karlmann d 4.12.771 m Gerberga Gisela b 757 d 810 Pippin b 759 d 761 Rothaid Adelheid

Gerelindis Adela Von Pfalzel m Odo vir inluster, domesticus?

Gregor Abbot of Utrecht Alberich unknown

Alberich Bishop of Utrecht

Theoderich m Aldana sister of Hiltrud and Landrada

Wilhelm Von Gellone

Haderich

Chrodelind m Bernarius

Theoderich

?line to Plantevelu

N.B. The following links are alleged; that Chrodelind and Bernarius were the parents of Theoderich; and that Theoderich had a son called Theoderich.

(b) Henri Lobineau’s controversial scheme for the descent of William of Gellone Dagobert II m(2) Gis`elle de Raz`es God-daughter of St Wilfrid of York Living at Rhedae (Rennes-le-Chˆateau)

Sigisbert IV 676-758 Count of Raz`es ‘Ardent Shoot’. New source called ‘Les Plant-Ard’ m Magdala

Theodoric Sigisbert V 695/698-763/768 Count of Raz`es

Bera III 715-70 Count of Raz`es m Olba (Alda?)

Guillem de Gellone Guillaume Count of Raz`es

line to Plantevelu

Oliba

Figure 26.1: Schemes for the descent of William of Gellone and Bernard Plantevelu

26.1. THE MEDIEVAL DESCENT OF BERNARD PLANTEVELU

13

(a) Descent from William of Gellone to Bernard ‘son of the tyrant Bernard’ Theuderic

Theuderic m Alda or Aldana possibly a daughter of Charles Martel

‘Saint’ William or ‘Guillem de Gellone’, count of Toulouse, 789-; founded the monastery of Gellone, c 804; became a monk there, c 806; probably died by 815 m Cunigonde & Witburgis (maternity of children unknown)

Bernard, ‘of royal blood’ (‘de stirpe regali’), marquis of Septimania 827-; royal chamberlain 829-; executed 844 m Dhouda who wrote Liber manualis for her son William, 841

William b 826, usurper of Barcelona, executed 850, s.p.(?) ??NN (‘sister of William Tolosanus’) m Wulgrim, count of Angoulˆeme, d 886

issue: counts of Angoulˆeme and Perigord

Bernard, b 841 (‘son of the tyrant Bernard’)

cf. part (b) below

Gaucelm, count of Roussillon, beheaded 834 Heribert, blinded 830 Gerberga, a nun; drowned in a barrel in the river Saˆone in 834 ??NN (Chrodlindus) ??m Wala, count and lay abbot of Corbie, d 836 others; Witgerius, Adalelm, Helimburgis

Theudoin

Theuderic ‘son of Thedoin’, count at Autun 815/819; probably godfather of William, son of Bernard

others: Adalelm, Albana, Bertana

(b) Descent from Bernard ‘Plantapilosa’ (generally now assumed to be ‘son of the tyrant Bernard’)

cf. part (a) above

Bernard ‘Plantapilosa’ count of Auvergne, d c886 m Ermengarde

William, ‘the Pious’, count of Auvergne, duke of Aquitaine, lay abbot of Brioude, founded monastery of Cluny, 911; d 918 m Angilberga Ava, nun, then abbess, at Cluny

Boso, d young ??NN m Rotbald ‘of Provence’, d c949

issue: counts of Provence

Warinus, o.s.p. c878 Adelinda m Acfred, count of Carcassone, d 906

William ‘the younger’, duke of Aquitaine, lay abbot of Brioude, o.s.p. c928 ??Bernard, o.s.p.

Figure 26.2: Posterity of William of Gellone, count of Toulouse (after Nathaniel L.Taylor, 1997) Merovingians are remembered for their cult of long hair 3 . Sigibert III, who ruled the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia (around modern Germany and NE France), died in 656 leaving a son Dagobert II. What happened next is the subject of enormous and probably endless debate4 . The exile of the young prince Dagobert to Ireland is unquestionably an oddity5 . It receives a mention for example in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake 6 . A near contemporary narrative source, the Liber Historiae Francorum, says:3 4

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (1962) The Long-Haired Kings and other studies of Frankish history. Patrick J Geery (1988) Before France and Germany: the Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World, p

191. 5

Ian Wood (1994) The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751, pps 222-3. The quote is Allwhichwhile or whereaballons for good vaunty years Dagobert is in Clane’s clean hometown prepping up his prepueratory and learning how to put a broad face bronzily out through a broken breached meataerial from Bryan Awlining! Erin’s hircohaired culoteer. This can be recast as ‘And Dagobert, doing his preparatory in Slane, is learning how to put a broad fecce onto a broken breached meataerial from Bryan Aulining, Erin’s hircohaired culoteer’. More simply this becomes ‘Dagobert went through his preparatory in Slane when he learned how to inside outbreeches from Brian Aulin, the chief culoteer.’ 6

CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

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When [the Austrasian] king Sigibert died, Grimauld [the Mayor of the Palace] had his small son [i.e. Sigibert’s son Dagobert] tonsured and sent him and Bishop Dido of Poitiers on pilgrimage to Ireland and established his own son [i.e. Grimauld’s son Childebert] in the kingdom. The Liber Historiae Francorum was written, probably in Soissons, in 729. A slightly earlier work, the Life of Wilfrid, bishop of York, by Stephanus, confirms the exile of Dagobert to Slane (near Dublin). By 676, Dagobert II was restored to the Austrasians through the good offices of St Wilfrid who however, on his way home from Rome in 680, learned that Dagobert II had been assassinated 7 . Later, Dagobert II, for some reason, became the object of a fully fledged cult and had his own feast day on December 23, the anniversary of his death near Stenay.

26.1.2 William of Gellone and Bernard Plantevelu is no impeccably known line of descent from the Merovingians though there have been T here alleged lines through two different children of Dagobert II to William of Gellone and Bernard Plantevelu. One of these schemes is the Trier tradition, which has been attested since the 11th century and which maintains that Irmina Von Oeren was a daughter of the Merovingian king Dagobert II. However this story has been destroyed by C. Wampach 8 relying on A. Halbedel’s older investigation. The Carolingian kings followed on from the Merovingians with the usurpation of the throne by the Mayors of the Palace. According to the genealogical scheme of Eduard Hlawitschka 9 , the aforesaid Irmina Von Oeren was the great-great-grandmother of the great Carolingian emperor Charlemagne10 and also of William of Gellone. This scheme is outlined in Figure 26.1(a); its “N.B.” note explains how there is an ‘alleged’ genealogical connection between king Charlemagne and William of Gellone. It seems indisputable that the father of Wiliam of Gellone was Thierry (Theoderic) but there has been criticism of Hlawitschka’s scheme for Thierry’s identity and descent 11 . Much discussion relates to a reference to (apparently the same) Theuderic (or his son Theuderic) as count in 782, d 79312 and, in particular, to an associated reference to ‘kinsman to the king’ (i.e. ‘propinquus regis’). In particular, it has been claimed that a more direct line of royalty is implied by this and by the description ‘of royal blood’ (i.e. ‘de stirpe regali’) (Merovingian or Carolingian) for William of Gellone’s son Bernard. A different, though in some ways comparable, scheme for the genealogy of William of Gellone (Figure 26.1(b)) is associated with the controversial documents of the Prieur´e of Sion though these are often claimed to be both ‘sinister’ (associated politically with the French right wing) and an elaborate hoax. According to the questionable Prieur´e documents, Dagobert II’s heir Sigisbert IV, on the murder of his father, was rescued by his sister and smuggled southwards to the domain of his mother Giselle de Raz`es (SW France)13 . In the scheme of Figure 26.1(b), the ensuing line of 7

Eddius, Vita Wilfrithi ch. 28, ch. 33. C. Wampach, Echternack 1, I, S. 113ff. 9 Eduard Hlawitschka Die Vorfahren Karls des Grossen (or Charlemagne’s Ancestors) in Karl der Grosse - Lebenswek und Nachleben Band I. Pers¨onlichkeit und Geschichte. Herausgegeben von Helmut Beumann. Verlag Schwann D¨usseldorf 1966. 10 Charlemagne’s father, Pippin III, was officially anointed king in 754, in place of the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, thus inaugurating the Carolingian dynasty, named after Pippin’s father, Charles Martel. Charlemagne was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor in 800. 11 http://users.skynet.be/pierre.coste/Genealogies/Thierry.htm 12 Nathaniel L. Taylor (1997) in The American Genealogist, 72, pps 203-221 adds the following comments. All the ink spilled over Alda and Theuderic and their potential relationship to the Carolingians are summarised well, with slightly differing results, by Constance Bouchard, Family Structure, pps 654-56, and Christian Settipani, La pr´ehistoire des Carp´etiens, 176 n 187. While many historians, including Bouchard, identify William of Gellone’s father, Theuderic, with the Theuderic named in the Royal Frankish Annals, a powerful count in 782, 791, 793 (when he was killed), Settipani suggests, sensibly, that Theuderic whom William named as his deceased brother in his charter of 804 might be identified as the count instead. 13 Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1996) The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, pps 271 ff. 8

26.1. THE MEDIEVAL DESCENT OF BERNARD PLANTEVELU

15

Saint-Guilhem-le-D´esert Nature, art, legend and history combine to make the valley of Gellone and the abbey of Saint-Guillem-le-D´esert one of Languedoc’s high points. This exception site, of grandiose and wild harshness, reclusive among a circle of fantastic rocks, has always made a vivid impression on pilgrims and visitors. In the 9th century the monk Ardon Smaragde, disciple and biographer of Saint Benoˆıt d’Aniane described this valley of Gellone ‘as a valley so remote that whoever likes solitude must go there. One finds oneself surrounded there on all sides by very high mountains over which the clouds hang and such a retreat is sought only to dedicate oneself to prayer and meditation, for no place is better suited to reverence.’ Alas the solitude, so dear to the monk Ardon, has disappeared but the beauty of the site and its monuments remains and the mysterious charm of this inspired valley still works for the visitor, believing or cultivated. The authentic sense of medieval pilgrimage is found there better perhaps than anywhere else in the Languedoc. This ‘end of the world’ was chosen by Guillaume, count of Toulouse in 804 for founding a modest monastic cella where he withdrew two years later and where he would die on 28th May 812. By which combination of circumstances did this considerable character, dreaded warrior, close relative of Charlemagne, go on to end his days in this remote place, wearing the humble habit of Saint Benedict’s sons? Both history and legend provide their answers; the first, very simple, in its medieval and Christian perspective - the monastic vision; the second, fabulous and romantic as it should be - a great sorrow of love. Saint Guilhem: from historic character to legendary hero The person named by history as Guillaume (Guilhem in Occitan), count of Toulouse, duke of Aquitaine and named by legend as Guillaume d’Orange, Guillaume au Corb-Nez, or Guillaume Fi´erebrace, was assuredly a very strong character. However, firm historic data for this person is rather scarce. Coming from a noble Frankish family related to the Merovingians, his father was Thierry, count of Autun, and his mother was Aude, Charles Martel’s daughter, which makes him Charlemagne’s cousin. This illustrious relationship and his unquestionable military valour soon brought him high office at Charlemagne’s court. He was named in 788 as beneficiary count of Toulouse for achieving the subjection of rebellious gascons. As the duke of Aquitaine in 793, in order to repel the Moslems of Spain who were ravaging Septimania (the future Languedoc), count Guilhem distinguished himself in numerous combats against the Saracens, in skirmishes or battles that legends would magnify and raise to the level of epic. The decisive event of this confused and long uncertain fight against the Arabs of Spain was, in 803, the siege and taking of Barcelona where Guilhem seems to have played a determining role. With the Spanish March having been created and Septimania having been pacified, count Guilhem had reached the pinnacle of honours and glory when he found a childhood friend, Witiza, at the court of Aquitaine. The latter, a Goth, son of the count of Maguelone, had forsaken a career with weapons to become a monk under the name of Benoˆıt, and he went on to found the famous monastery of Aniane. Evidently on the advice and with the aid of Benoˆıt d’Aniane, Guilhem founded and endowed, in 804, two cellae, simple outposts of the abbey of Aniane, peopled with some monks - Notre-Dame de Caseneuve at Goudargues, in the dioceses of Uz`es, and Saint-Sauveur de Gellone, in the diocese of Lod`eve. But in 806 his vocation became clearer; after a pilgrimage to Saint-Julien de Brioude where he foregoes his weapons, imitating the example of his friend Benoˆıt, he takes leave of the world to receive the tonsure and monastic habit at Aniane. A little later he withdraws to his cella of Gellone where he would die on the 28th May 812 with the reputation of a saint. He was very simply buried in an oratory that he had built near his cellula, in a corner of the cloister, and which was dedicated to Saint Michael. Probably, when withdrawing to Gellone, Guilhem brought some liturgical books with him, such as the famous Sacrementary called “of Gellone”, now preserved in the National Library, and in particular a religious sign of the True Cross, Charlemagne’s gift to his former companion in arms. In the 12th century, the monks of Gellone, to satisfy the pilgrims’ piety and curiosity, wrote an edifying biography, the Vita Sancti Willelmi which, amplifying Ardon’s narrative, abounds in hagiographical details of little certainty and mixes in episodes of the saint’s warlike life, not borrowed from history but from epic songs! Legend The legend, as transmitted to us by the Geste de Guillaume l’Orange, seems more enticing! After Joseph B´edier, at Gellone itself, suggested a stop on the way to Compostela, the jugglers and minstrels of Northern France learned, from the tales of the monks, of the extraordinary history of this great lord, Saracen-slayer who had ended his days in the monastic habit. Captivated by the character, they sang with craving of his deeds, embellishing and ceaselessly adding fabulous episodes to the warlike and amorous life of their hero! After one of the most famous narratives, le moniage Guillaume, Guillaume had married with great passion the Saracen Oriable who became countess Guibourc. A marvellous love united them for fifty years and, when his ‘lady with the bright face’ died, Guillaume, unable to find joy among men, took refuge in remote solitude with his memories and in the hope of meeting her soon in paradise to be reunited with her with whom ‘many times he laughed and cried’. Also he founded Gellone as a ‘shrine of the fairest marital love’! The Geste de Guillaume d’Orange, written in langue d’o¨ıl and spread by ministers throughout the entire Christian West, met with such a success in the Middle Ages that popular imagination quickly confused the authentic saint of history with the hero of legend and there was no longer a clear distinction between what belonged to one or the other.

Table 26.1: History and Legend of William of Gellone (after Languedoc roman - La Pierre qui vire)

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CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

Sigisbert IV, Sigisbert V, and Bera III is called ‘The Hermit Princes’ because they sought refuge in the caverns in a hill near to Rhedae (Rennes-le-Chˆateau) during the Saracen invasions14 . The Prieur´e documents maintain that it was through the ‘Plant-Ard’ line of Bera III, who was William of Gellone’s uncle, that Bernard Plantevelu descended. Another scheme considers that Bernard Plantevelu was on the direct line of descent from William of Gellone15 whose history and legend is outlined in Table 26.1 16 . Nathaniel L. Taylor (1997)17 18 gives the scheme shown in Figure 26.2 19 20 21 22 for the connection to Bernard Plantevelu 23 24 25 . This appears to be the best regarded scheme currently. Some detailed information about Plantevelu himself is given in Tables 26.2 and 26.3.

26.2 From sense in Plantevelu to the Plant family or the name Plantevelu we may think of plant hair as found on the sprig of broom or on vetches for example. This is extended by medieval philosophy in as much as all types of hair were believed to contain vegetable life. As will be outlined below, the meaning of Plantevelu can be extended to a plant (down from God) of the spiritual powers in hair. Subsequent names including Plantagenet, Plantefolie, and Plant can be interpreted consistently in terms of God’s creation and man’s generation. 14

A carved tombstone in the museum at Rennes-le-Chˆateau is said to be of their common grave. William of Gellone, one of the most famous men of his times, has been associated by some with the unfinished 13th century epic romance Willehalm. He has thereby been associated further with the other works of Wolfram von Eshenbach, such as Parzival, about the illustrious ‘Grail family’. 16 http://www.mnet.fr/fdaniau/guilhem/St-Gui-F.html 17 Nathaniel L. Taylor (1997) Saint William, King David, and Makhir: A Controversial Medieval Descent, The American genealogist, 72, 203-221. This is also available at:http://home.earthlink.net/˜nathanieltaylor/pdfs/Makhir.pdf. 18 Arthur J. Zuckerman (1972) A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 768-900 has claimed Jewish descent for William of Gellone, from Jewish leaders in Narbonne leading back to an old claim of descent from the Biblical king David. This scheme is sundered by Nathaniel L. Taylor (1997) however. 19 Figure 25.1 gave a genealogy for Bernard Plantevelu in which his father was Bernard of Barcelona and his grandfather was Guillaume of Gellone. This scheme is similar to that shown in Figure 26.2 except that there is the addition in Figure 25.1 of B´era I (and descendants) as an eldest son of William of Gellone; this addition is qualified by a comment of Philipe Fouchaux citing an Appendix written by Pierre Ponsich (1951):- This appendix and the genealogical tables of pages 248-9 give as “very probable” the fact that B´era, Count of Raz`es, founder of Alet in 813, son of “Guillaume” was the same person as B´era, Count of Barcelona 801-20, father of Guillemond, and that [this] “Guillaume” could well have been William of Gellone. 20 http://newsarch.rootsweb.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2001-04/0987065109 21 Pierre Ponsich (1951) Le Conflent et ses Comtes du IX au XII-`eme si`ecles, pps 241-336, followed by the Appendix Bera I, Comte de Raz`es, et Bera, Comte de Barcelone, pps 337-339 in Etudes Roussillonnaise, 3-2. 22 There are still further schemes for the genealogy of William of Gellone; these are given at both of:15




http://www-droit.u-clermont1.fr/Recherche/CentresRecherche/Histoire/gerhma/GUILHEMIDES.htm http://web.genealogie.free.fr/Les dynasties/Les dynasties celebres/France/Dynastie Guilhemide.htm 23

Nathaniel L. Taylor (1997) comments:- For the third generation, we have explicit testimony from Dhouda [i.e. the wife of William of Gellone’s son Bernard] about her husband and their two sons, William and Bernard (though not the possible daughter), and the caustic comments in the Annals of Saint-Bertin detailing their careers. ... The Annals of Saint-Bertin (which indeed encapsulate most of the surviving data on the various Bernards) repeatedly name a ‘Bernard, son of the tyrant Bernard’; ‘the tyrant’ is obviously the executed intriguer Bernard of Septimania [i.e. Dhouda’s husband]. The identification of the ‘son of the tyrant’ with Bernard ‘Plantapilosa’ [i.e. Plantevelu], count of Auvergne and father of William the Pious, has been much debated. It remains conjectural but now represents the consensus among historians and genealogists. [Note: this identification links together parts (a) and (b) of Figure 26.2.] ... Finally, the successors of Bernard ‘Plantapilosa’ are attested in the charters of the monastery of Saint-Julien de Brioude, where the counts of Auvergne served titularly as abbots and are cited in the documents. 24 In Annals of Saint-Bertin, ed. Janet Nelson (Manchester, 1991), 221, notes 9, etc., Janet Nelson’s notes to her translation are a useful complement to Bouchard’s remarks (Family Structure, 651-55); she, too, agrees that ‘Plantapilosa’ was son of Bernard of Septimania. 25 Confirmation of this consensus for a link between William of Gellone and Bernard Plantapilosa can be found also, for example, McKitterick, Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, genealogical table at 363.

26.2. FROM SENSE IN PLANTEVELU TO THE PLANT FAMILY

17

Lexikon des Mittelalters: Band I Spalte Bernhard Plantapilosa (Bernard Planteveleue), Count of Autun, b 22.3.841, d 885/6. He was the son of Bernard of Septimania and of Dhuoda (this had been unclear for a long time, given the large number of important bearers of the name Bernard between 860 and 880). Perhaps having already been the Count of Raz`es earlier, he received the County of Autun in 864, already held by his father, from king Charles the Bald. He was accused of plotting to murder the king however and had his estates confiscated; he was still able to contend with Count Robert the Brave for Autun until 866. Then Bernard left for the Middle Empire and became Count of Ornois. He was reconciled with king Charles in 869 and then seized the Counties of Auvergne and Velay which had been under a Bernard, apparently the father of Ermengard, Planteveleu’s wife. Later, in 972, Bernard [Plantevelu] had at the king’s order done away with a Bernard (Bernard le Veau) who may have been Count of Autun, Toulouse, Limoges and Rodez. In thanks the king entrusted him with three of the last named counties and also appointed him, along with other magnates, as advisor for his son Louis the Stammerer who had received rule over Aquitania. After Louis had succeeded Charles the Bald, he found Bernard [Plantevelu] to be a supporter against another Bernard, the rebellious Margrave of Gothia (878-9); Bernard [Plantevelu] received from the king the March of Gothia and the County of Bourges. Under king Louis’s successors, Louis III and Carloman, Bernard [Plantevelu] received the Maconnais which was taken from Boso and transferred to him in 880. Bernard’s [Plantevelu’s] alliance with Emperor Charles II, who became the West Frankish king in 885, yielded him the Lyonnais. Bernard [Plantevelu], bearing the titles of comes, dux, marchio became the actual restorer of the Duchy of Aquitania and, after his death, this passed to his son William the Pious and then to both sons of his daughter Adelind (who married Count Acfred of Raz`es).

Walter Kienast Der Herzogstitel in Deutschland und Frankreich (9 bis 12 Jahrundert), R Oldenbourg Verlag Munchen ¨ - Wien 1968, Seite 164. The history of the liege duchy of Aquitania begins with Bernard, nicknamed Plantevelue (Plantapilosa) who founded the first Aquitanian dynasty, the House of Auvergne, a son of the notorious Bernard of Septimania. Plantevelue’s father, uncle, and brother had met their death from the hangman. From his father-in-law, of the same name, he inherited (between November 869 and summer 872) Auvergne with Velay. After he had Count Bernard of Toulouse killed (872), who evidently had fallen into disgrace with Charles the Bald, the king entrusted the murderer with all the victim’s lieges: the Toulousain, Limousin, and Rouergue. With Louis the Stammerer’s accession to the throne, the Aquitanian underkingdom ceased to exist. Bernard Plantevelue had only one worthy rival left in the South: Margrave Bernard of Gothia, the “son of Blichildis”, commanding Septimania, Berry, the Autonois, and perhaps Poitou as well. The latter’s downfall (878/79) was caused by the fact that he did not acknowledge Louis the Stammerer but played king himself. He vanishes tracelessly from history and the majority of his spoils, including Gothia and Berry, fell to Planteveleu. Lastly, the latter’s untamed thirst for power reached beyond Aquitania’s borders: he took away the Maconnais from his ally hitherto, Boso of Vienne against whom, as a usurper, the Carolingians waged a family war. However, the large County of Autun, which he formerly had ruled as successor to his uncle and brother, and even the Lyonnais, which had already been conquered by him, were denied to him by the West Frankish king Carloman. In response, Bernard had the Lyonnais assigned to him by Charles III, the Fat, and from then on acknowledged the latter as his king. In a fantastic rise Bernard had made himself the mightiest man in the South. The whole of the enormous area was not administered by Bernard directly; he and his son had particular counts subject to them for individual districts. A fate unknown to us removed the restless person from the stage, in June 885 he is mentioned alive for the last time. At the end of his government, it seems, Bernard Plantevelue simply refers to himself as a comes (and so he was called by the only foreign private document from the period) but formerly, also in possession of Aquitania and the Tolosan March, he entitles himself comes dux seu et marchio and signs himself dux et marchio.

Wilhelm St¨ormer Fr¨uher Adel. Studien zur politischen F¨uhrungsschicht im fr¨ankisch-detschen Reich vom 8 bis 11 Jahrundert Band II Seite 468. By an attempt against Charles the Bald, Bernard sought to avenge his father but failed. While with that he lost his honores, he could still keep himself in the comitatus of Avignon for two more years. Decades later there is still talk of the formidability of the three Bernards who are still impossible to identify exactly. Then the trace gets lost; Wollasch supposes Bernard could have amassed plenty of power similar to his father’s.

Table 26.2: Some translated extracts about Bernard Plantevelu

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CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

Ernst Dummler ¨ Geschichte des Ostfr¨ankischen Reiches Verlag von Duncker und Humblot, Berlin, 1865 - Band I Seite 547, 797; Band II Seite 54, 90, 101, 115, 244. A murder attempt (864) failed completely. Its targets were the king himself or Robert and Ramnulf. It was attempted by Bernard [Plantevelu], son of the notorious Margrave Bernard of Septimania, as his father’s avenger, from an ambush in the forest near Pistres. It ended with the flight of the intending assassin whose lieges went to augment Robert’s wealthy and well earned estates. Bernard [Plantevelu], the son of the notorious Margrave Bernard of Septimania, was completely reconciled with the king, though the son like the father had earlier been condemned as the empire’s enemy. After the reconciliation, Bernard became (873) Count of Auvergne. A second Bernard is found as the Margrave of Gothia alongside him and there was a third, Raimund’s son who had to renew an oath of fealty to Charles [the king], as Count of Toulouse. But what a shock it had to be to the emperor when he learned that, as well as Boso and the warlike Abbot Hugues of Tours, Count Bernard [Plantevelu] of Auvergne and Margrave Bernard of Gothia, and then shortly everybody on whose support he had counted, left him and joined a conspiracy by the majority of his magnates (877). Furthermore, this war was about the lieges of the condemned Margrave Bernard and, if Boso agreed, the best of the spoils were to be shared by the chamberlain Theoderic and Count Bernard [Plantevelu] of Auvergne. He tried to make his friendship as close as possible to these men who, besides him and Abbot Hugues, were the most powerful in the kingdom, so he could count on their willing support for his plans. From his deathbed, Louis the Stammerer sent his royal insignia, via Bishop Odo and Count Albuin, to his eldest son Louis whom, as a boy, he had placed under the special care of Count Bernard [Plantevelu] of Auvergne. At the time of Louis’s death, some of the West Frankish magnates were still at war with Margrave Bernard whom they were to deprive of the County of Autun. These were the tutor of Prince Louis, Count Bernard of Auvergne, also Abbot Hugues, Duke Boso and the chamberlain Theoderic to whom that county had been intended. Perhaps it was intended as an attempt at reconciliation when, on the 20th June 885, on the wish of his high chaplain Liutward and the excellent Margrave Bernard [Plantevelu] of Auvergne, Emperor Charles restored to the Archbishop Aurelian of Lyon all of the estates that had been robbed from his church.

Pierre Riche Die Karolinger - Eine Familie formt Europa Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co KG, Munchen ¨ 1991 - Seite 231-2, 245, 252, 273. Bernard Plantapilosa, the son of Bernard of Septimania, aimed at resuming his father’s policy and restoring a major principality. But in 865 another Bernard was entrusted with Gothia-Septimania; he was the son of a Count of Poitiers and related to the Rorgonid dynasty. At the time there were 11 nobles all named Bernard whose identification presents great problems to research. In Auvergne, another Bernard became the dominating figure. This Bernard of Auvergne appears to be related to the family of Count Warin and became by 868 Count of Auvergne, Count of Velay and Abbot of Brioude. His son and successor was able to force back Bernard Plantapilosa. Instead of reinforcements the news arrived in Quierzy that the missing, leading nobles were in rebellion. These were Boso, Higo Abbas, Bernard Plantapilosa, Bernard of Gothia; also Louis the Stammerer appears to have participated in the conspiracy. This was the magnates’ reaction to the ruler’s “desertion”. Some of the nobles remained faithful to the late king’s memory and foiled the plan; Bernard Plantapilosa, the chamberlain Theoreric and Hugo Abbas could make Louis the Younger give up, when they ceded to him, the part of Lorraine received by Charles the Bald in 870. Bernard’s “honores” were divided up by many families, among them Bernard Plantapilosa and Bello of Vonflent. As the Wilhelmine heir, Bernard Plantapilosa had at his disposal estates and followers in Berry, Auvergne, Limousin, Rouergue and, as still has to be shown, also in Bergundy. He was less adventurous than Bernard of Gothia or Boso and stayed faithful to his lawful ruler until his death in 886.

Rudolph Schieffer Die Karolinger W. Kohlhammer GmbH Stuttgart Berlin Ko¨ ln 1992 Seite 168, 182. In 872 Charles had appointed the long since grown-up son in his Aquitanian regnum under the tutelage of Bernard of Septimania and so the more he had subjected himself to Louis’s rulings restricting administrative power and freedom of movement. Of great impact was the fact that, during Louis the Stammerer’s rise to becoming the Western Frankish king in 877, the Carolingian underkingdom ceased to exist. Bernard of Gothia tried to take advantage of this in 878/79, still in vain of course, but he then yielded to the Count Bernard Plantapilosa, already titled marchio by Charles III, originally from Autun (d 885/86), the founder of the duchy, soon autonomous enough, of the Wilhelmines.

Table 26.3: Some further translated extracts about Bernard Plantevelu

26.2. FROM SENSE IN PLANTEVELU TO THE PLANT FAMILY

19

26.2.1 A prototypical concept for plant in the medieval context experiments have shown that a string of letters is recognised more quickly as P asycholinguistic word if it has a concrete rather than an abstract meaning . Our initial cognitive perception 26

relates to ‘concrete’ experiences of our external senses. It may be added that medieval words were more often spoken than written and, as a further semiotic clue, there appears to be a linguistic sign of downward movement in plu - m/n - b/g/k/t as found in plumb, plummet, plump, plunge, plunk, and also in Plunte as a variant spelling of Plant. In linguistics, the concept of ‘the concrete’ relates to having a definite place in space and time. Downwards movement can be said to be close to ‘the concrete’; in other words, it can be said to show a high degree of semantic basicness 27 . A salient meaning is one that stands out from a background of other possible meanings 28 . The foregrounding of a particular meaning may be aided by its context, by our familiarity with the meaning, and by its semantic basicness. The basicness of the ‘Word’ is evidenced, for its origins, by Wycliffe’s version of John 1.1, which places the Word with God from the beginning of time with ‘In the bigynnyng was the word, and the word was at God, and God was the word.’. Salient events, in medieval thinking, can be associated with God’s ‘planting’ of the creative Word – particular such ‘plantings’ will be considered further below and they include the initial genesis of life on earth 29 , the immaculate conception30 , and the descent to earth of any child’s soul. In modern times, ‘planted creation’ may seem an obscure meaning for plant, largely overtaken by more modern views of the universe. In the medieval Age of Faith however, God’s planted creation may have formed a (near) prototypical concept 31 for the meaning of plant. In the context of medieval belief, God’s planting of life down to earth was tightly fixed as a distinct creative event in time and space (i.e. the planting of the Garden of Eden and Adam). The semantic basicness of this event has since been substantially lost since, with a round earth, the direction to God is less well fixed in space and, with life evolving gradually, the act of God’s planting all life down to earth is at a less distinct instant of time. The ‘concrete’ concept of ‘planted creation’ has hence faded to become largely32 an archaic and abstract notion, such that this once common usage of the word plant has aged to become nebulous.

26.2.2 ‘Near prototypical’ concepts for Plant-like names name Planterose, as well as Plantevelu and Plantagenet, is associated mostly with France. T heIn French, it is normal to separate a direction of movement from its manner. Thus, in French, one says for example ‘mount the stairs running’ instead of ‘run up the stairs’. Similarly, we should be open to the idea that, for Planterose and Plantebene, a sense of vertical movement (plante) 33 is separated from its character, which may be elevated (rose) or hallowed (bene). An elaboration of 26

Alan Cruse (2000) Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics, p 11. Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, p 52. 28 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 57-8. 29 This is illustrated by Henry Lovelich (1450) The History of the Holy Grail, Chapter XXIX, lines 159-62; and thus was Eve in Clene virginite Whanne Owt Of paradis Cast was sche; and yit the same Our sche plaunted this braunch, Virginite with-Inne here was ful staunch. 30 This is illustrated by Hyckescorner Anon (c151) In the bosome of the seconde persone in trynyte I sprang as a plante mannes mysse to amende. Also, by Hail Mary, full of grace Anon (1100-1500) from Medieval Carols (1952) Much¨e joy to us was grant And in earth¨e peace y-plant When that born was this ‘fant In the land of Galilee. 31 Alan Cruse (2000), ibid, pps 132-40. 32 Even now, there are some who do not accept Darwin’s theory of evolution but who believe in some form of Creationism, usually in connection with God’s creation of the soul of those who are born. 33 Some sense of vertical movement is apparent in such Dictionary definitions of plant as ‘to set down or up’ or ‘to settle’. For example, in R.E.Latham Revised Latin Word-list from British and Irish Sources, there is planto: to plant 1239, 1538; to set up (a sheep fold) 1325; to implant, settle 12c., 1624; to found c1200, 1471; to settle, colonize (a district with cities) c 1361. To settle, at a basic level, can be associated with a decrease (settling down) of motion. Also, there is in the OED plant, v, 2(a) To insert, set, or place firmly in or on the ground or any other body or surface, to set down or up in a firm position, to put or fix in position, to post, station. 27

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CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

this idea relates to medieval theophany 34 , in which an upward plaint (lament) to God petitions for a downward plaunt with the petition or boon being praising or hallowed. Moreover, we may turn our attention to the medieval name Plantefolie, which was evidently more common than Planterose or Plantebene in medieval England; we are then more or less compelled 35 to think of the abstract, alongside the basicness of vertical movement, since ‘wickedness’ or ‘sinfulness’ or ‘madness’ is the Middle English meaning of folie. We are hence led to a sense of prayer petitioning for the descent of divine powers, such as contrition, ?on wickedness 36 . At a more earthly level we might consider man’s procreation, in place of God’s creation, with the bodily conception being characterised as pleasant (bene), courtly (rose), or wicked (folie). Also there are corresponding qualities to be associated with the resulting child which are pleasant, quickened, or bastard. In a modern linguistic style, we may speak of ‘praying for a child’ or, in more of a medieval style, ‘petitioning the Lord for the descent of a soul’. Medieval scholastics believed that incorporeal souls descended from the heavens to be implanted in corporeal beings 37 . In medieval times, adjacent ideas evidently included the ‘abstract’ theophany of a plaint for the Lord’s plente 38 (bounty or fertility) in a plaunt (of vertue or of soul) and, also, there is the adjacent ‘concrete concept’ of a child. A (near) prototypical concept for plant can be said to be that of soul implantation, or bodily conception, but it is pertinent to add that the related act of ‘procreation’ is subject to a wide range of non-descriptive style39 . This expression of the style often involves euphemism, such as with the phrase ‘sleeping together’. Since it is quite normal to suppress 40 the act of procreation from polite conversation, other adjacent ideas may be brought to the fore of our conscious thought (cf. the medieval intellective) with animal eroticism (cf. the medieval sensory) being suppressed to the subconscious (cf. the medieval vegetative). In medieval scholasticism, procreation was associated with the generative which, along with the nutritive and the augmentative, was a function of the vegetative operations of the soul. Some confirmation of archaic, (near) prototypical sense to plant of this nature can be found in Samuel Johnson’s 18th century English Dictionary which lists ‘meaning 2’ of to plant as ‘to procreate, to generate’ 41 .

26.2.3 Differing autohyponymy for plant in differing cultures 42

Natural History classifications (ı.e. taxonomies ) of different languages can differ not only T inhe the names of such categories as ‘animals’ and ‘plants’ but also in which categories are 43

34

Henry Bett (1925) Johannes Scotus Erigena, a study of medieval philosophy. More strictly, this assumes that the phrase has compositionality and that it did not have an idiomatic meaning as does a white elephant for example. 36 An early theophany of supplanting wickedness may have led on to a subsequent sense of men assuming special powers to ‘plant’ magic spells. 37 This has been discussed extensively in earlier Chapters especially in connection with the teachings of the 13th century English scholastic Robert Grosseteste. 38 As well as being a variant spelling of plaunt(e), the MED defines plente as 1(a) abundance, prosperity, wealth; .. ; 1(c) an ample supply of food, drink, etc.; plenty; .. ; 1(e) a large amount, great deal; much; .. ; 1(h) fertility, productivity, fruitfulness .. ; 1(i) generosity, bounty .. 39 In the modern usage of English, this is illustrated by an extract from Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, p 61, as follows. Looking at the descriptive equivalent expressions, have intercourse with is relatively formal, have sex with / go to bed with / sleep with are fairly neutral, but while bonk, do it with and fuck are all informal, there are significant differences between them. Did you do it with her? might be described as ‘neutral informal’; however, bonk is humorous, whereas fuck, screw, and shag are somehow aggressively obscene (although perhaps to different degrees). 40 Reverence for the concept of ‘planting’ may have been more normal, for example, amongst supporters of the ‘Plantagenets’ than amongst their enemies. 41 Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary list To Plant v. a. as 1 To put into the ground in order to grow; to set; to cultivate; 2 To procreate, to generate; 3 To place; to fix; 4 To settle; to establish: as, to plant a colony; 5 To fill or adorn with something planted: as he planted the garden or the country; 6 To direct properly: as, to plant a cannon. 42 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 146-61, 186. 43 The French word ‘animal’ designates all members of the animal ‘kingdom’ including birds, fish, insects, etc. whereas in everyday English ‘animal’ is a co-taxonym which contrasts with birds, fish, insects, etc. but which includes mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. 35

26.2. FROM SENSE IN PLANTEVELU TO THE PLANT FAMILY

21

recognised. For example, for modern English speakers, walnuts, peanuts, and almonds all belong to a single category called ‘nuts’ but this has no equivalent word in French or German. Though there is the botanical category ‘dry fruit’ in a ‘scientific taxonomy’, this is unknown in the ‘folk taxonomy’ of the French. Also, in German, an Obstgarten is a kind of Garten but an orchard is not a kind of garden for the English. Such differences occur frequently for modern languages and we need to take care not simply to adopt modern English prejudices for categories and their names when considering words relating to Natural History classifications. For the medieval word plant, we should not jump to the assumption that it referred to the ‘plant’ as opposed to the ‘animal’ kingdom. Though ‘folk taxonomies’ may have differed between dialects of Middle English, we may note a few generalisations. B. Berlin et al (1973) 44 comments ‘In folk taxonomies, ... the most inclusive taxon, e.g. ‘plant’ or ‘animal’, is rarely named.’. B. Berlin (1972)45 speculates that ‘the kingdom [i.e. ‘plants’ or ‘animals’] is the last rank to acquire a distinctive label in the growth of ethnobiological nomenclature’. Also, B. Berlin (1978) 46 comments that ‘the basic principles of classification .. appear to arise directly out of the recognition by man of groupings .. on the basis of .. visible similarities and contrasts’ 47 and, for the Greek and Latin co-taxonyms (tree : vine : herb) he adds ‘These three major groupings, it might be speculated, represent such distinct perceptual discontinuities that their recognition may constitute a substantive near-universal in prescientific man’s view of the ‘plant’ world.’. It can be argued48 that what really is required is a synthesis of the basic cognitive ‘plant’ groupings (tree : vine : herb) with an appropriate folk-philosophy. In medieval philosophy, all living things were considered to have a soul which had ‘heavenly origins’. Natural History had more to do with the moral qualities of living beings and the structures of their souls than with such modern scientific theories as evolution and compatible classifications of the life species 49 . The structure of the soul appeared in ‘scholastic’ teachings and it seems that related concepts were widely known. The widespread occurrence of Green Man head carvings on medieval churches suggests that the ‘implanted vegetable soul’ was a familiar concept to the community at large. Folk apparently understood ‘vegetative vertue’ as a basic ‘life force’ and Green Man ceremonies appear to be remembered not least for ‘fertility’ and the ‘generative’ function of the vegetative soul. For the scholastics, the human soul was said to have intellective, sensory, and vegetative functions, with the vegetative being common to all life. The ‘vegetative’ was present in humans, ‘animals’, trees, and herbs for example, and it can be associated with the superordinate class of all ‘planted life’. The ‘vegetative’ transcended the co-taxonyms50 (human : ‘animal’ 51 : ‘plant’). A ‘plant kingdom of vegetable life’ should be seen as no more than an emerging concept for the Middle English word plaunt which can be taken to be often more nearly synonymous with the superordinate class of all ‘living things’ 44

Berlin B., Breedlove D.E. and Raven P.H. (1973) General principles of classification and nomenclature in folk biology, American Anthropologist 75, 214-42. 45 Berlin B. (1972) Speculations on the growth of ethnobotanical nomenclature, Journal of Language and Society, 1, 63-98. 46 Berlin B. (1978) Ethnobiological classification in E.H.Rosch and B.Lloyd (eds.) Cognition and Categorization, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 47 Berlin adds ‘This is not to say that cross-cutting folk classifications based on the function of the organisms (say, in food, medicine, house building, etc.) are not present or relevant – they are simply not as basic or as fundamental as classification based on the appearance of the organisms.’ 48 See also the following. Hunn E.S. (1983) The utilitarian factor in folk biological classification, American Anthropologist 84, 830-47. Brown C.H. (1995) Lexical acculation and ethnobiology: Utilitarianism versus intellectualism, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 5, 51-64. 49 In modern science, taxonomy developed with the Swedish botanist Carl Von Linn´e (1707-78) (aka Linnaeus) and it achieved greater prominence with its relevance to 19th century theories of Evolution. 50 In a modern technical specification of a hierarchy of levels of various co-taxonyms we might well choose a level as ‘animal kingdom : vegetable kingdom’ with ‘human’ being a subclass of ‘animal’. In medieval scholasticism however, (‘human’ : ‘animal’ : ‘vegetable’) are distinguished as different levels of complexity in the functioning of the soul. 51 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, p 183 comments that there is no everyday term in English for ‘members of the animal kingdom’ (equivalent to bˆete in French, or beastie in Scottish): creature is from a more formal register, and animal in this sense (as in ‘the animal kingdom’) only occurs in technical registers.

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CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

(i.e. all things with a planted soul) and, indeed, associated even more widely with ‘planted creation’. The medieval word plaunt can be regarded as displaying a confused autohyponymy 52 whereby it could mean ‘planted creation’ and not necessarily the more specific hyponym ‘newly planted vegetable life’. The Middle English Dictionary (MED) begins the definition of plaunt with ‘something planted’ and such a word as herb was used more as a subordinate hyponym, or a contrasting cotaxonym, for ‘a named class of vegetable life’ where we would now instead use the word plant, or perhaps more specifically ‘garden plant’. In Welsh planta 53 means ‘to beget children’ and plant means ‘planted generation’ or ‘children’. In other words, for plant in Welsh, the salient hyponym of ‘planted creation’ is ‘planted human life’ whereas elsewhere it could be ‘young vegetable life’. The concept of plant as a ‘sapling’ evidently came into Middle English with ‘Anglo Saxon’ 54 and ‘Anglo Norman’55 while the idea that it meant ‘human offspring’ seemingly held sway for the folk of at least Wales and its borderlands.

26.2.4 A background of earlier Plantagenet-like names in France evidence is patchy for early medieval times we may piece together some relevant notions T hough for the meanings of early Plant-like names. The Merovingians are remembered for their cult of long hair and this has been related56 to their virtus (i.e. manliness or virtue). Their procreation was liberal and royal bastards were never at a discount because they were bastards 57 . The meaning of the Latin word virtus58 related also to the vigour of vegetation. The 9th century scholastic Scotus Erigena, a contemporary of Bernard Plantapilosa (Plantevelu), maintained that teeth, bones, and hair contained only vegetable life 59 and this may be compared with more widespread concepts of ‘implanted vegetative life’60 or ‘planted vertu’. Scotus Erigena maintained that a planted place in human nature [cf. the vegetative soul] was not evil [non ergo in natura humana plantatum 61 62 63 52

Alan Cruse (2000) ibid pps 110-1, 150-3. An example of autohyponymy is that the word dog can mean a particular type of animal which can be said to be a superordinate class, with a subclass of the male or the female of the species. Whereas the female is called a bitch the male is called a dog also. As the male, dog is a hyponym of dog as the species. Rather similarly, in medieval times plaunt could be considered to mean ‘any life’ planted by God or just its own hyponym with the meaning ‘vegetable life’. 53 Editor Gareth A Bevan (1995) Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language defines, with early usage, plantaf: planta to beget or bear (children), procreate, breed. 54 In Anglo-Saxon plante means a plant or a shoot. T. Northcote Toller (1898) An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary based on the Manuscript Collections of the late Joseph Bosworth. 55 The Anglo-Norman Dictionary (London 1992) defines 
  , 
   s (bot.) as: plante, young shoot, young tree. 56 J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (1962) ibid, pps 62, 156ff, 162, 232, 245ff. 57 J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (1962) ibid, pps 203-4. 58 The Middle English (MED) definition of the meanings of vertue has been outlined in a previous footnote. In Old French, the meanings are similar. The Dictionair Historique de L’Ancien Language Franc¸ois par La Curne de SaintePalaye (1882) lists virtu and vertu with ‘all the senses of the Latin virtus’. The Oxford Latin Dictionary Ed. P.G.W.Glare (1976) lists uirtus : 1. The qualities typical of a true man, manly spirit, resolution, valour, steadfastness; mature vigour (of vegetation); 2. Excellence of character or mind, worth, merit, ability; 3. Moral excellence, virtue, goodness; 4. (personified or as a goddess); 5. Any attraction or valuable quality, excellence (natural or acquired); 6. That in which something excels, special property. 59 Henry Bett (1925) Johannes Scotus Erigena, a study in medieval philosophy. pps 57-8. 60 Foliate heads, in which the face becomes leaves, appear on Roman columns of the 6th century AD. Heads issuing vegetation from the mouth appear on tombs and carvings and they appear to have become the dominant form of so-called ‘Green Man’ heads for 12th century Romanesque churches. Chapter 25. 61 The Glossarium Mediae et Infirmae Latinitatis, conditum a Carolo du Fresne, Domino du Cange (1938) lists 
   : ut plantata, in Charta ann. 1062. apud Menester. Histor. Lugdun. pag. 6 and 
  
 : locus vitibus vel arboribus consistus, (planteis) in Consuetud. Britannica art. 605. 62 The Lexicon Manuale ad Scriptores mediae et infimae Latinitatis ou Recueil de Mots de la Basse Latinite par W.H. Maigne d’Arnis lists 
   : ut plantata (A. 1022) and 
 : locus vitibus vel arboribus consistus; lieu plant´e d’arbres ou de vignes. 63 Albert Blaise (1975) Dictionnaire Latin-Franc¸ais des Auteurs du Moyen Age lists 
  : plantation de vigne, lieu plant´e.

26.2. FROM SENSE IN PLANTEVELU TO THE PLANT FAMILY

23

est malum] but that evil was the irrational motion of the will 64 . In Latin, planta65 means ‘sole of foot’ or ‘shoot for propagation’ and pilosa 66 means ‘hairy’; Plantapilosa literally means ‘hairy generative shoot’. By the 9th century times of Plantapilosa (Plantevelu) there were the beginnings of a conscious separation between written Latin and spoken language67 68 . For the meaning of Plantagenet, it is appropriate to modulate Old French meanings with earlier Latin senses. In the later part of the 9th century, there is the first written evidence of vernacular Old French which begins to reveal itself more fully by the 11th century and into the 12th century times 69 of Geoffrey Plante Genest70 . In Latin planta means ‘sprig’, genista 71 means ‘broom’, and genitus72 means ‘generation’ or ‘creation’. Plantagenet (or Plante Genest) is usually taken to mean ‘a sprig of broom’, which is hairy. The 1950 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica maintains that ‘Plantagenet was derived from the custom of Geoffrey73 wearing in his cap a sprig of the broom (genet) plant.’. By the 1974 edition, this had been modified to ‘it has been variously explained as referring to his practice of wearing a sprig of broom (Latin genista) in his hat or, more probably, to his habit of planting brooms to improve his hunting covers.’. In Old French however, plante 74 means ‘lament’ or ‘planted place’ or ‘sole of foot’ or (as plant´ e) ‘abundance’; geneste75 means ‘broom’ or a ‘kind of marten (weasel)’ or (as genet) a ‘small horse’. Somewhat at odds with recent English presumptions, ‘lament by broom’ is found in France as an early interpretation of Plantegenet 76 . It is interesting to note that both Plantapilosa and Plantagenet can mean ‘hairy shoot for propagation’. For the Welsh at least, the generative sense of planta was more salient than its vegetable 64

H Betts (1925), ibid, p 70. Chapter 24. The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines 

: to propagate from cuttings; also 
  : the sole of the foot (esp. as  placed on the ground in standing, treading etc.); and 
  : a young shoot detached from the parent-plant for propagation, (b) a young plant, seedling.  66 The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines
  : covered with hair, hairy, shaggy (b) (as a mark of uncouthness). 67 In the strongly romanised south of France, Roman civilisation remained largely intact after the 5th century though Latin speech began to develop into more localised Gallo-Roman. Literary Latin continued to be the official language of both Church and State though the quality of written Latin deteriorated into so-called Lower Latin during Merovingian times. With the advent of the Carolingian dynasty in the 8th century, the standard of Literary Latin improved and Charlemagne succeeded in raising the standard of education in the Church and among the nobles. 68 M.K. Pope (1952) From Latin to Modern French with Especial consideration of Anglo-Norman, pps 9-13, 16-17. 69 The Germanic influence is held to have been less in the counties south of the Loire and, in the 12th century, the vernacular of the south (Langue d’Oc) was held to be a distinct language from that of the north (Langue d’Oil). The Angevin Empire embraced both sides of this divide and extended into England. 70 The spelling Plante Genest appears in the Roman de Rou by the 12th century poet Wace of Caen in Normandy and is cited by the Complete Peerage (Vol. XI Appendices, page 141). Though possibly inappropriate to ‘Plantagenet times’, the Romans often used 3 names (praenomen, nomen, cognomen) with the nomen inherited from the father (or sometimes associated with a tribe) and the cognomen being more a personal nickname (sometimes associated with a family branch). 71 The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines genista (genesta) : the name of various shrubs, incl. prob. Spanish broom spartium junceum and greenweed genista tinctoria.    72 The Oxford Latin Dictionary lists     : reproduction, generation; also various similar words such as   
 : (1) of or concerned with creation; (2) concerned with procreation or reproduction, reproductive; capable of reproduction, (2b) (with reference to plants); (3) of or connected with one’s birth or birthday; (4) hereditary, inborn, native. 73 Geoffrey (1113-1151) the Fair, Count of Anjou and Maine. 74 La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, ibid, lists 
  : plainte, du Latin planctus; 
  : (1) endroit plant´e, (2) plante des pieds; Plant´e (or Plant´ee) : (I) pl´enitude (voir Plent´e), (II) abondance, quantit´e;
  (1) metre en terre, (2) au pronomial, se jeter; Plent´e, Plentet : grand quantit´e, abondance, du Latin plenitatem. For the phonology of plainte (lament) from the Latin planctus see M.K. Pope (1952), ibid, p 133; the Oxford English Dictionary lists 
    : the action of striking noisily, esp. (b) the beating of the breast, etc. (as a sign of sorrow); lamentation. 75 La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, ibid, lists            
  : genˆets;        : sorte de fouine;      : cheval d’Espagne, de petite taille; Genette (`a la) : aller `a cheval a la genette, avecs ´etriers fort courts, comme si l’on montait un genet. 76 On http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal1405 there is an interpretation for Plantagenet that is said to arise from Fulk the Great showing penance in a scourging by broom, a story which is attributed to the 17th century French poet Ren´e Rapin. This can be compared with a ‘lament of wickedness’ interpretation of the medieval English name Plantefolie. 65

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CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

taxonomy. One might consider that there was implicature or explicit reference to the reproductive organs and procreation throughout Latin, Old French, Middle English, and Welsh but with different strengths of allusion and different styles, ranging from the crude to the poetic, in different cultures. Erigena’s ‘planted place in human nature’ can be related to reproduction or the soul . With a ‘soul’ sense of ‘planted place’ for plante, there is consistent sense for Plant(a/e)genet as ‘the implanted virtues of a horseman (from the British medieval Latin genetes 77 )’. We may personalise such concepts in the ‘horse borne establisher’ role of Geoffrey Plantegenet who, through marriage and itinerant courts and other means, received (down from the heavens) the power of bringing cohesion to the Angevin Empire. Though Aquitaine, Normandy, and England lasted only a century as the Angevin Empire created by Geoffrey Plante Genest, his male descendants retained the English crown for some 350 years. Though early details are sketchy for the use of ‘Plantagenet’ as a surname, this has become one of the most famous names in English history. For the medieval nobility, it seems appropriate to foreground a meaning that relates to God’s creation and the descent of the Word (cf. verbum regis) and His planted vertues; this sits neatly with the developed philosophies of the 13th century scholastics relating to the heavenly descent of the intellective, as well as the vegetative, operations of the soul. The Middle English herbal Agnus Castus ascribes broom the vertue of knitting together broken bones 78 and this may be extended to other cohesive powers such as in broom stabilising crumbling banksides. With the praise maxim 79 of modern pragmatics, Plantagenet could mean ‘the descended vertu of cohesive powers planted in noble flesh with God’s Word’. Similar, though less lordly, notions may pertain to similar names in late medieval England.

26.2.5 The medieval planting of the Word and of vertue times, we may relate our thoughts mostly to a vegetable plant, which can be thought I ton modern relate to late medieval sense involving the planting of vegetable life down from the heavens. However, the word used mostly for this by the medieval Pearl poet for example was erb. The 14th century Pearl poet refers to God ‘that al the worlde planted’. The Wycliffe version of Genesis 2.8 reads ‘forsothe the lord god hadde plauntid paradise of delyte fro bygynning in the whiche he sette man: whame he hadde (y)fourmyd.’. The east Cheshire Pearl poet also refers to paradise that the Lord plantted (sic) on earth. The Wycliffe version of Genesis 2.7 includes reference to God instilling into the face of man the breth of lyf 80 and, since lyf can be associated with ‘leaf’ as well as ‘life’ 81 , there is an apparent allusion to Green Man heads receiving a ‘breath of foliage’ along with our more modern understanding of the ‘breath of life’. If we are familiar with the metaphor of Green Man heads ‘uttering’ vegetation from the mouth, as is common in medieval church carvings for example82 , we may quickly grasp a related notion of God ‘planting’ His creative Word or ‘vegetative vertue’ into men. In particular, the Middle English (MED) definition of vertue relates partly to the vegetative powers of the soul – the MED lists for example : 1. virtu of (child) bering; 3(b) the vegetative power of nature; virtu of genderinge; virtu of norishinge. These relate to the generative and nutritive operations of the vegetative soul whose augmentative operations, also, are implicit in meaning 3(a): the source of strength for a bodily process. Medieval phraseology includes the planting of the Word, the planting of vertue 83 , the planting of grace of noble lineage, the planting 77

E.E.Latham, Revised Latin Word-list from British and Irish Sources. G¨osta Brodin (1950) Agnus Castus: A Middle English Herbal. 79 Alana Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 364-5. 80 The Wycliffe version of Genesis 2.7 reads ‘The lord god than formyde man of the slyme of the erth & spyride in to the face of hym; ane entre of breth of lyf And mad(e) is (a)man in to a soule zeuyng lyf’. 81 The MED does not list lyf but defines lif as ‘animate existence; also, the vegetable and animal life effected in a human being by the natural and vital spirit; also, the soul’. The MED also defines lif as a variant spelling of lef meaning ‘leaf’. 82 Chapter 25. 83 The MED defines vertu, vertu(w)e, vertou, etc. : 1. Physical strength, power; force, energy; also vigor; also stamina; e.g. vertu of bering the strength to give birth; 2. Physical ability of skill; an unusual ability, a talent; proficiency, skill; also, an area of expertise; 3. (a) Bodily strength or vigour; vitality; also, bodily health; also, the source of strength for a bodily 78

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of contrition of sin, etc. Since the word vertue was applied to the healing powers of herbs, ‘planting vertue’ can also be extended to the concept of instilling ‘healing rose spirits’ for example 84 into humans. As well as from the mouths of men, there are medieval carvings showing cats issuing foliage from the mouth indicating that ‘vegetative vertues’ could also be planted downwards and into cats. We may note that to set down, to implant, and to establish are all polysemes of the Middle English verb plaunten85 . Each of these subsenses can be applied to God’s ‘planting’ of the creative Word or Logos or ‘vegetative vertues’ into corporeal humans as well as to our more modern understanding of man planting herbs into soil.

26.2.6 Disputing the DBS meaning of Plant he Dictionary of British Surnames ( ) (Table 26.4) gives the meaning ‘gardener’ for Plant. T There is no known evidence that there was an initial or early Plant who was a ‘gardener’; nor is DBS

there any evidence of metonymic extension of the meaning of the word plant to ‘gardener’. Searches for extensions of meaning, such as a metaphor or a metonym, are triggered 86 when we recognise that an acceptable literal interpretation is not available but, in fact, there is the Welsh literal interpretation ‘human offspring’ for plant. For the context of SE England, the DBS postulates that that there could have been a metonymic extension87 of the meaning of Plant to a ‘gardener’ which it attempts to justify by pointing to the medieval names Plantebene and Planterose, while ignoring the more common medieval English name Plantefolie. Even for the mainly French name Planterose, however, we should not rush to a vision of men planting shrubs, brought on with gardening being the most popular hobby in modern Britain. French authorities maintain Planterose means ‘from a place planted with roses’. Such an process; (b) the quickening power of a flower or root; also (fig.); the life sustaining force within a plant; the vegetative power of nature; also, the fruit of a plant; vertu of genderinge the reproductive power; vertu of norishinge the inherent nutritive value within a plant; 4. (a) A particular mental faculty or power of the soul necessary for thought, imagination etc.; a power of the brain having the potential to direct and control physical functions; also, the force or power which causes the functioning of the brain; 5. (Physiol.) A physical faculty or power which causes functioning of the body, a part of the body, or bodily process; 6. (Chiefly med.) (a) efficacious quality; (b) a medicinal property; 7. (a) The power to protect from harm, talismanic power; the power to effect magic; also, the power to confer a supernatural ability; also, an occult power; (b) a supernatural influence; the power to affect life on earth; - used of celestial bodies; 8. (a) An inherent power of a substance which gives it power; also fig.; an intrinsic property of one of the four elements; (b) the power whereby the person or thing to which that power is attached can affect conditions, status, etc.; 9. (a) Divine power, divine might; (b) divine power divinely invested in a person or thing; (c) an act or a manifestation of divine power, a miracle; (d) as epithet for a deity or Christ; 10. (a) Sacremental grace, sanctifying grace; the spiritual benefit of Sacremental grace or of Christian vitue; (b) state of grace; 11. (a) Moral excellence, goodness, probity; also as a divine attribute; (b) a moral principle, an ethical imperative; righteousness, morality; (c) the moral impulse to do good; the power of conscience; (d) spiritual strength, fortitude; (e) moral inspiration; 12. a specific moral quality; 13. (a) Nobility of character, manliness, valor; a quality befitting a noble or knight; a chivalric quality; the moral rectitude appropriate to a ruler; royal generosity; (b) an act of valour; 14. (a) Legal power, authority; (b) supremacy; 15. (a) Value, worth; (b) significance, import. 16. (a) Effectiveness; (b) actuality; 17. An army, a fighting force; 18. (Theol.) The seventh order of angels in the celestial hierarchy; also, a celestial power; 19. The word virtue. 84 The Middle English Agnus Castus lists the rose with many healing vertues. 85 The MED defines the meanings of plaunten as 1(a) to plant or set (a tree, an herb, a vine, etc.); also fig.; also, transplant (a tree, etc.); 1(b) to plant (a vineyard, a garden); 1(c) to plant or sow a crop; also fig.; 2(a) to insert (a scion) into (a stock), engraft; also fig.; 2(b) ppl. plaunted, of a branch: joined to the trunk of a tree; 2(c) to instill (a virtue, a quality), infuse (grace), implant (the natural law, contrition, etc. in sb. or sth.); instill (one’s will in sb.); impart (truth, the word of God); 2(d) anat. ppl. plaunted, of an organ or a sinew: connected (to a bone); of a vein: attached to, or stemming from, an organ: of a nerve: fixed or located (in an organ); 3(a) to establish (a colony), settle (a people); found (a religious house); institute (a religion); form (a part of the body), create (the world); establish (peace); 3(b) to set (sth. in a place); 3(c) to set (sth.) down in writing, insert (sth.) in a treatise; also, plant (a false notion); 3(d) plaunten bataille: to engage in combat, enter battle; plaunten (in) sege, lay a siege; 4 to insert (sth.) in a food dish as decoration, decorate (a dish); 5 in surnames; (1199) Plantebene, (1209) Plantefolie, (1272) Planterose. 86 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, p 210. 87 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 112, 211-4. A modern waitress might say ‘the ham sandwich has ordered a coffee’ referring to ‘the person who has ordered the ham sandwich’. We might similarly envisage that some lord may have referred to their gardener as the ‘plant’.

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We may note that the function perspective ‘gardener’ tends to highlight a ‘vegetable plant’ concept for the meaning of Plant and this is also the case for the origins perspective ‘from the plantation’. Both of these relate to a modern English prototypical concept for the meaning of plant and both are listed in modern English Surname Dictionaries. These two meanings presume that the concept of a ‘plant’ kingdom was strongly recognised while neglecting the consideration that there were other ‘folk’ and ‘scholastic’ taxonomies for ‘plant’ and the soul in medieval times. A relevant respected source is the Dictionary of British Surnames a (DBS) and this enumerates four main groups of surname. French authorities have maintained that the French surname Plante means ‘from a planted place’ and this is consistent with DBS Group 1:1 Local Surnames: by far the largest group, derive from a place name, indicating where the man held land, or the place from which he had come, or where he actually lived; a large number denote residence by a wood, in the marsh, by oaks, etc.; also, toponymics, denoting the country, province, county, town or district from which the individual came. There is early mention in English sources, referring to Rouen in France, of the name form de la Plante (1273) which highlights an origins perspective. This may be unrelated to the east Cheshire name Plant but, even for de la Plante, one could consider ‘heavenly’ or ‘generative’ origins rather than ‘locative’ origins. We may recall that several early Plants are found in a religious context; their corresponding belief in ‘heavenly origins’ could have highlighted ‘a descended soul’ meaning. There is only a slightly different emphasis of the origins qualia role b between ‘descended soul’ and a surviving sense of ‘descendant’. Even in early times, a modern sense of ‘descendant’ could have been foregrounded, to become more salient than a pervasive belief in ‘heavenly descent’ if, for example, the descent were from a recognised family. In other words the emphasis could have been on descent from a particular family father who was (once) on earth in place of God the Father in heaven. We may hence consider DBS Group 2:2 Surnames of Relationship: these are often called patronymics (i.e. names relating to the father) but a more comprehensive term is needed, partly because many are formed from women’s names and partly because, in early sources, other relationships are often expressed. A semantic emphasis on ‘fatherly origins’ for Plant seems broadly consistent with, for example, the medieval Welsh custom for names; in 1292, 48% of Welsh names were patronymics of the form ‘Llewellyn ap Gryffud’ or ‘Madog ap Jevan ap Jorweth’ where ap means ‘son of’. There are also, of course, English surnames such as Robinson, meaning son of Robin, or Hodgkins, meaning illegitimate child of Roger. The Plant surname may have had an origins perspective that can be likened more to fatherly origins than locative origins. The DBS adds two more groups:3 Surnames of Occupation or Office. 4 Nicknames The DBS then adds the disclaimer ‘Within these groups there is considerable overlapping and a full and accurate classification is impossible’. a

P.H.Reaney (1958) A Dictionary of British Surnames, second edition with correction and additions by R.M.Wilson (1976). b Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 117-8. Pustejovsky (1995) has identified four different qualia roles as different possible perspectives of the meaning of words and these are component parts, type, origins, and function. The first two could apply to the personal characteristics of a person called Plant (as arises for such ‘nicknames’ as Longshanks or Short) but such characteristics do not appear to relate to the meaning of Plant. For the other two qualia roles, a function perspective, such as ‘gardener’, is semantically on a par with an origins perspective such as ‘from the plantation’ or ‘from heavenly descent’.

Table 26.4: Plant in a general scheme of surname semantics

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origins perspective may be varied and there is particular salience in human life origins. There are implicatures of ‘plant’ (generation) and ‘rose’ (courtly love) that suggest procreation veiled by the politeness maxims of modesty and consideration 88 . There is modesty in ‘my life is as vegetation’ and consideration of embarrassment in ‘your attraction is as a rose 89 . A medieval mind may have thought first of implanted vegetative vertu (plant) with rose selecting the augmentative from the vegetative powers. The rose related to immaculate conception 90 as well as courtly love91 . The descent of a child’s soul (plant) could augment its body 92 such that Planterose could become a roused or quickened93 offspring. Similar names can be interpreted more directly, by philonymous selections94 of the polysemes of plant and folie or bene, to produce the consistent meanings a ‘bastard implanted’ (Plantefolie) or ‘hallowed descended’ (Plantebene) offspring.

26.2.7 Reviewing a better meaning for Plant main 14th century homeland was seemingly east Cheshire and north Staffordshire T inhe thePlants’ NW Midlands of England though there are 13th century mentions elsewhere. Initial DNA evidence suggests that the Plants are largely a single family. It does not seem very fitting to suppose that such an ‘occupational’ name as a ‘gardener’ (DBS Group 3) applied mostly to a single family95 . It is not impossible to suppose that most of several unrelated families of ‘gardeners’ died out, perhaps during the 14th century Black Death, leaving just one widely spreading ‘gardener’ family. However the initial DNA evidence, as well as semantic and geographic considerations, makes it seem less likely that Plant meant ‘gardener’ than ‘offspring’. The latter meaning could have been largely restricted to a single family that ramified early, perhaps from the NW dialect district of England near north Wales 96 . A ‘human life’ concept for Plant is recognisable even in English Dictionaries for past usage of the noun plant. The Middle English Dictionary (MED) describes plaunt n(1) 1(a) as ‘something planted; a shrub, an herb, a plant; also figuratively 97 ’ and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) de
 1(c) as ‘figuratively, anything planted or springing up; a scion, offshoot, nurseling; scribes plant a young person; a novice (now rare)’. Thus, in the OED, an archaic human sense ‘scion’ or ‘young person’ for plant retains a mention, albeit that this mentions neither the likely foregrounding of this sense for Plant as a surname in medieval Cheshire and Staffordshire nor that ‘human offspring’ was the literal, not figurative, meaning for plant in nearby Wales. The 14th century Pearl poet coincides with the first known evidence for the east Cheshire Plant 88

Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 361-370. Alexander Nequam (1157-1217) in De Naturis Rerum describes the moral vertues of the rose with ‘A bramble of spine armour begets the rose whose touch is sweet and smooth.’. 90 The Pearl poet associates the rose with virgin birth as has been described in Chapter 23. This is available on the web at http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cc/helpdesk/TestDir/plants/pearlpoet.pdf 91 The relevance of the 13th century Roman de la Rose has been described in detail in Chapter 21. 92 The 13th century philosopher Roger Bacon claimed that most modern scholastics taught God’s direct creation of only the intellective operations of the soul. 93 As listed in an earlier footnote, the MED 3(b) meaning of vertue is ‘the quickening power of a flower or root’. 94 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 224-5. 95 A possible exception might be if people of high office were selected from a single family, as DNA evidence suggests was the case for the Jewish name Cohen. 96 This may have arisen with the salt trade. Alternatively, there is some evidence to suggest that the Plants may have arrived in east Cheshire from Warren lands following the disinheritance of the illegitimate (Plantagenet) descent of the Warren earls of Surrey (Chapter 19). 97 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 199-201 considers two different senses of to expire, namely ‘to die’ (as for a person) and ‘to become out of date’ (as for a driving licence). His own intuition is that the first sense is literal and the second is figurative/extended but, for many of his students, it is the other way around. The reason for the difference of opinion is not clear though it might perhaps relate to the ‘die’ sense having been more usual when he was young. Similarly, for to plant, there appears to have been medieval dialect differences between usages of the ‘child’ or ‘herb’ senses (e.g. between Wales and England) so that it becomes unclear which sense of ‘something planted’ (MED) should be regarded, in a specific environment, as being literal rather than figurative/extended. 89

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CHAPTER 26. PLANTEVELU AND THE MEANING OF PLANT

family name. His usage of plaunten centres on the collocations 98 ‘planted world’ and ‘planted paradise’. This suggests ‘heavenly origins’ for the planted as found in the generating vertu of a ‘scion’. As well as the 1(d) meaning ‘scion’ for plaunt 99 , the MED mentions the 1(c) meaning ‘sprig’. Whereas sprig can be a derogatory term for ‘a young person’, the Concise OED defines scion as ‘shoot of plant, especially one cut for grafting or planting; descendant, young member of (especially a noble) family’. For the Pearl poet, plonttez could mean young pears or young peers 100 . In Welsh101 and Irish102 , plant has the meaning ‘children’, ‘scion’, or ‘child’. We may consider that Children, Child, Plant, and Young are broadly similar surnames though there are different accounts for each of these names. The DBS lists a 12th century Richard le Yunge at Lichfield in Staffordshire, ascribing the name to the Old English geong meaning ‘young’ and adding ‘a name often used, no doubt, to distinguish a younger from an older man’. For the surnames Children, Childerhouse, and Childers, the DBS gives the meaning ‘from a children’s orphanage’. This does not fit well with the initial DNA results for Plant, unless we extend the notion of ‘orphanage’ to a ‘planted place’ for the children of a single family 103 . For the surname Child, the DBS mentions other names from Latin, Puer and Infans, and adds:In the earliest examples (c 975) it probably denotes one comparable in status to the drengs of the northern Danelaw, the sergeants of Norman times. Ekwall (Early London Personal Names) has shown that Robert Child (1202) may have been called by the pet-name of Child because he was the youngest child of a minor at the time of his parents’ death. cf. puer and Infans supra. In the 13th and 14th centuries child appears to have been applied to a young noble awaiting knighthood (MED). It may also mean ‘childish, immature’ (c1200 MED), ‘a page attendant’ (1382 ibid)..

Although a ‘heavenly or fatherly origins’ perspective (DBS Group 2) for plant is not given in English Dictionaries as the most prominent meaning, there is the literal meaning ‘children’ in Welsh and similar meaning extended at least into the West Midlands. The meaning a ‘descended soul or descendant’ complies with medieval faith and can be regarded to carry some euphemism or implicature of consideration104 in connection with the generation of life. Reference to created virtue or a generated child seems implicit down the centuries, even into more modern English. In the 14th century, William Langland of the West Midlands and London, described the most precious vertue as the ‘plonte of pees’105 or ‘plonte of Trewe-love’. In the 15th century East Midlands, Richard Misyn described carnal love as nourishing the ‘plantes of all vyce’. Seemingly even in rural SE England around 1460106 plant refers to the descent of virtuous life from the church fathers with ‘Religious sister for as moche as thou art now plantid in the gardyn of holy religioun ... If thou wilt lerne very meknes so to be a religious plaunte ... oure blissed lord the tender and very louying spouse and keper of chaste soules and bodies wich hath plaunted the in the garden of his holy religioun ... Thou 98

Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, p 76. The MED defines plaunt noun as 1(a) something planted; a shrub, an herb, a plant; also figuratively; also by analogy to a plant, a tooth; 1(b) a sapling, tree; also, a sapling used as a staff or cudgel; 1(c) a young plant; a sprout, sprig or shoot; 1(d) a cutting, slip, scion, or graft of a tree, vegetable, or other plant; 2 the sole of the foot. 100 Chapter 23. 101 Editor Gareth A Bevan (1995) A Dictionary of the Welsh Language defines, with medieval usage, 
 : children, young persons; children (of parents), offspring (sometimes of animals), progeny, issue; descendants; followers, disciples, servants; persons regarded as product of a particular place, time, event, circumstances, etc.; ?boys, sons; also fig. 102 Royal Irish Academy (1967) Contributions to a Dictionary of the Irish Language defines plant(t)a (from Latin planta, late loan word) : a plant; a scion; as in ‘a foreign yet Gaelic scion’ (of Gerald Fitzgerald son of the Knight of Glin). Also, Rev. Patrick S. Dinneey (1927) An Irish English Dictionary defines clann - race, children; sept, breed, progeny; clan, party, sect, followers, school; a plant (early): ouine clainne - a child: clainne - pregnant: clann comes from the Latin planta which word at a later period produced plannda - plant, scion, offspring. 103 A 19th century book (John Sleigh (1862) A History of the Ancient Parish of Leek, p 33) maintains that Plant is a corruption of Plantagenet. Proof is (as yet) lacking that there was a blood relationship between the Plant and Plantagenet families. In the 14th century Plant homeland, the royal heir held the title ‘earl of Chester’ and there was, in east Cheshire, the royal stud at Macclesfield and the illegitimate Warren (Plantagenet) descent at Poynton. 104 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, pps 366-7. 105 This evidently relates to Grosseteste’s reference to the Prince of Peace (Chapter 22) as well as to the Biblical description of Jesus as ‘the vine’. 106 Dr J.J.Vaisier (1960) A deuout treatyse called the tree & xii. frutes of the holy goost. 99

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art swete in good living yif thou plante in thi soule holy plantes of holy vertues and the lif of fadres [fathers]’. In the 16th century, William Shakespeare of the West Midlands and London, used plant as a metaphor for man with sap as his vegetative vertu in Sonnet 15.5-7: ‘When I perceive men as plants increase [growth is the augmentative function of the vegetative] Cheer e`d and checked ev’n by the selfsame sky [celestial control of the vegetative] Vaunt in their sap at height decrease ...’; he also used gardens (cf. planted places) as a metaphor for maidens, with flowers as the vehicle for the (generative) bearing of life in Sonnet 16.6-7: ‘And many maidens gardens yet unset With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers’. Even by the 17th century, in east Cheshire, there is reference to the ‘planted Word of the Lord’ which retains an emphasis on God’s creation. An allusion to man’s generation seems evident in a 1621 reference at Chester to ‘his Grandchild [i.e. of Sir John Savage], then a young Plant ... That hopeful Plant, that is the apparent Heir of all his glory, and this great Discent;’107 . Here Plant appears to be at least a naturalised 108 metaphor for human life such that ‘child’ is effectively its literal meaning; we may note that the capitalised words here are Plant, Heir, and Discent and that ‘child’ is grammatically required rather than the plural monoseme ‘children’ of Welsh Dictionaries. A precise synonym is often elusive but there seems little doubt that a fitting polysemy for the early Plant surname is a ‘descended implant of soul, descendant, or offspring’.

107

J.P.Earwaker (1877) East Cheshire: Past and Present; A History of the Hundred of Macclesfield in the County Palatine of Chester, Vol.I, pps 9-10. This reproduces a 1621 description of the Hundred of Macclesfield written by Mr William Webb. 108 Alan Cruse (2000) ibid, p 201.